


Love Me Like I'm Not Made Of Stone

by melancholymango



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Depression, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Lance (Voltron) Gets Prosthetic Legs, M/M, Major Character Injury, Season/Series 06 Spoilers, Suicidal Thoughts, and i'll even make it gay free of charge, if the sluts at dreamworks HQ won't address Keith's self-sacrifice, then i will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 21:18:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14941565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melancholymango/pseuds/melancholymango
Summary: So, no, contrary to the team’s frequent concerned talks to him and about him… Keith wasn’t suicidal. He wasn’t seeking death each time he launched himself into a situation that was practically promising him he’d find it. He just didn’t see it as a risk. They already knew that the lions could choose another paladin if they lost the ability to work with their current one. Hell, right now they had two pilots capable of piloting Black. So, why? Why would it matter if he died out on the field chasing his purpose?This was what he was made for, wasn’t it? If he died for the cause, then he’d completed his mission.





	Love Me Like I'm Not Made Of Stone

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys!! This started out as a vent piece and then I randomly decided to continue it today after staying up all night to watch the new season. If it seems a bit all over the place that would be why.
> 
> Mind the tags!! But it does end happy i swear!!!!!

It wasn’t that Keith wanted to die, particularly. He just thought it might be easier than being here. There were moments where he was rushing into battle where he thought about how he might not make it back, and that thought tended to bring him comfort and calmness rather than add to his anxiety. It was a promise after all, a definite end to the repetitive turn of the wheel he was running on.

He’d developed a routine this past year in space. It wasn’t something he’d intended to do really, he had never been a routinely person, someone that found comfort in knowing what their day would entail. He liked spontaneity. He liked not knowing.

When he’d first became a paladin, he thought it was the best thing for him. The shine wore off quick though. The different planets and people he met weren’t new adventures waiting to be explored, they turned into the same background noise of routine like everything else. He had no freedom, every “new” thing in his life was a responsibility.

Wake up. Eat (sometimes). Train. Shower. Face some form of life-threatening mission. Return to the castle. Eat (most times, Shiro tended to force them all to attend dinner, Keith included). Sleep.

Keith wasn’t particularly good at that last part of the routine, but he kept it on there all the same. He stalked off to his bed each night at what the rest of the paladins seemed to view as a respectable hour to retire, and then he stared up at the top of his bunk until his eyes felt like they were burning. Shiro called it insomnia, said that he needed to stop thinking so much or else he’d drive himself mad.

Keith always nodded along with him, uncertain how to tell Shiro that the problem wasn’t thoughts racing around in his head, but rather the opposite. It was a blank space. Try as he may to think about something for any length of time, to focus on something, to care about literally anything enough to fixate on it… he couldn’t. He begged himself to feel something, _anything_ , until his chest ached and his body shook with silent sobs. The catacombs of his mind felt dusty and unfamiliar, like he hadn’t really had to use his head for anything in years.

The constant knowledge of it followed him around, taunting him with echos in the back of his head, teasing words about how this might be all he ever got. He could die tomorrow and this would be all his life was. A lonely, hollow shell of a person who never felt anything for anyone and never meant anything to anyone.

The rational part of his brain knew it wasn’t true. His team cared about him to some extent beyond his necessity to Voltron. He cared about them too, in theory, he knew he did. He knew he should. He knew that technically, if his head was functioning rather than filled with loose wires… he would. As it was, he pretended to. He faked it well enough that everyone believed he was fine, or at least close enough to it considering their circumstances. He was scared to lose them, but a lot of that worry stemmed from the thought of their funerals, the thought of everyone around him screaming and crumbling around him at the pain of the loss while he stood there stock still and impassive.

God, he didn’t want to be that person. He didn’t want to feel empty down to his core, like a fundamental part of himself had been left out when he was made.

More than once, he’d found himself staring at the Galra while they fought. He stared to the point the distraction had nearly cost him a limb once or twice. He just couldn’t help it, looking at them was like looking into a twisted funhouse mirror. He saw himself, spit out and regurgitated, a reflection just barely off in a way he couldn’t place.

They were all so ruthless, so uncaring and indifferent to their actions and the repercussions of it all. They had a cause and they fought blindly for it, moving forward because they didn’t seem keen on moving anywhere else. They didn’t care where they’d been or where they were headed, they just moved, followed orders and let the universe push their lives ahead. And when they thought of death, it wasn’t something scary, because their lives had never been theirs to lose. They didn’t care.

Oh, how Keith _wanted_ to care, wanted to say he was better than that.

He wasn’t.

Maybe he _was_ built wrong, the Galra in him convinced to only be a part of something so much bigger than he was, meant only to be a cog in the machine and not a standalone being. Ever since he was little, he’d never known how to relax, how to just be. He always had to be working, moving, doing something with his time that he thought the rest of the world might like. He’d never learnt… _how_ to like things for himself.

Even stranded in the middle of the desert living in a fucking shack, his desire for the universe’s approval and a purpose had driven him to fixating unhealthily on the strange energy he’d found. He wouldn’t have survived otherwise, he needed _something_ to drive himself toward. He couldn’t live with himself all alone in that empty desert, in an empty shack, being the empty person he was.

So, no, contrary to the team’s frequent concerned talks to him and about him… Keith wasn’t suicidal. He wasn’t seeking death each time he launched himself into a situation that was practically promising him he’d find it. He just didn’t see it as a risk. They already knew that the lions could choose another paladin if they lost the ability to work with their current one. Hell, right now they had two pilots capable of piloting Black.

So, why? Why would it matter if he died out on the field chasing his purpose? This was what he was made for, wasn’t it? If he died for the cause, then he’d completed his mission.

When the Blades had offered to take Keith in, he took it as an opportunity to be surrounded by people more like-minded than his current team. He’d stepped into the Blade of Marmora headquarters and no one had looked twice at him, no one had tried to befriend him once in the months he’d spent there. The closest thing he came to was Kolivan and the other leaders who helped teach him, purely out of obligation to the cause.

Everything they did was out of obligation. Every single day. Every second. Every breath.

Keith wasn’t sure he liked it, though he wasn’t opposed to it either. He never felt pressured like he did back at the castle. That voice wasn’t in the back of his head, reminding him which things he should care about and what was wrong with him. There was no time to worry about that here, no need to. The moment you joined the Blade, you pledged your life to the mission.

Knowledge or death.

Keith wasn’t stupid, he knew that that translated to “as many deaths as it takes to win this war”. He accepted that, supported the ideology even. The trolley problem; one person’s death meant nothing in the face of saving countless others. Anyone could be expendable if it meant saving everyone else.

\--

It was meant to be a simple intel gathering information. After their short trip back to Earth earlier in the year, they’d come back to find all hell had broken loose in the remainder of the Galra empire. Months had passed since then and they’d managed to rebuild the Castle of Lions with much difficulty. Currently they were hacking into a deserted graveyard of a base to try and find out intel about one of the leading generals remaining in the Galran civil war.

It was meant to be easy. They weren’t even supposed to need Voltron. The Blades went in alone and Keith went with them, wanting to be useful to the cause. Since getting the real Shiro back in his rightful form, they could both interchange as the black paladin, so Keith didn’t feel tethered to the team. There was a back-up if he wasn’t around when Voltron was needed.

And Voltron was needed today. Keith had barely reached his stationed outpost and plugged the drive in when the sound of loud gunfire rang out somewhere nearby. Voltron and an entire fleet of Galra cruisers soared through the sky not much later, foot soldiers fighting with the other Blades who’d come on the mission with Keith. Luckily, he’d yet to be discovered, and he was the one in charge of collecting all the important information.

He just had to get out fast the moment he was done.

Keith stayed rooted to where he was, unable to leave the port where he was gathering the information digitally. The gunfire was raining down pretty heavily when he noticed the empty field beside him had a ship stopping over it, bottom hatch opening and dropping off a small group of civilians in the middle of the barren field.

The first civilian to touch ground took off running and made it all of ten steps before exploding. Keith flinched backward in shock. The remainder of the prisoners started to sob and quake in fear, terrified as they realized they were surrounded by a minefield.

Cue Lance running through the door, dressed in his paladin uniform and swinging around the red bayard in sword form. Keith frowned at him immediately. He saw Lance examine the situation, no doubt coming to the same conclusion Keith had about the minefield. Except rather than accepting there was nothing he could do and moving on, a spark of challenge rose in his eyes.

Keith blanked.

“Lance, don’t.” Keith pleaded, growing frantic as he realized there was nothing he could do. Kolivan had ordered him to stay there until he’d gathered all the necessary info, if he moved now the entire mission would be for naught. So many lives lost, he couldn’t risk not getting the intel.

But Lance was walking _toward_ the blasts rather than away from them, his sword drawn like that’d do anything to protect his body against the bombs going off all over the planet’s surface. It was a minefield and Lance was traipsing out onto it, walking through the sea of blood and corpses of soldiers that’d come before him and failed. “Lance! Don’t do this!”

Lance paused where he stood, looking back over his shoulder and offering a thin smile.

“I gotta.” Lance told him, shrugging his shoulders as he fitted his helmet back onto his head. Keith shook his head slowly. “I’m a paladin of Voltron, risking my life is like in the job description or something.”

“No.” Keith growled, slamming his free hand against the wall. “ _Don’t_.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.” Lance responded, his voice surprisingly even. The usual panic that Lance felt in situations like this one just wasn’t present in his expression and that was the most worrying part. He had to have known it was a suicide mission, that he’d make it to the civilians just in time to protect them from the blasts. Not him, though. Not him.

“You’ll die!”

“They’re gonna die, Keith!” Lance responded, his voice taking on a snarl-like quality as he whipped around to glare at Keith. There it was, that panic Keith had been searching for. It was only there for a flash, but it was downright hysteric, full-blown terror in Lance’s eyes for an instant. Then he was wiping it away as quickly as it’d shone through, laying on the false bravado act thick.

Keith’s bottom lip trembled, he reached up to disengage his mask. He looked Lance in the eye now, well-aware that the panic on his own face would be visible now.

“ _Please_.”

“Sorry, buddy.” Lance muttered, turning and taking off just like that. He ran in a distinct pattern, no doubt something Pidge was feeding into his communicator in live time. There was only so much that could be picked up by the scanners, though. So when a ship flew low overhead and shot a long beam of lasers right behind where Lance was standing, no one could have seen it coming.

“Lance!” Keith screamed, so hard that his throat felt raw. He watched the laser set off the bombs, and he was running before the first one had even finished exploding. The entire field was going off one by one in a blaze of glory and Lance was caught somewhere in the middle of it, trying to get to the prisoners used as bait in the center of the field.

The intel forgotten, Keith used his thrusters to get high enough into the air to spot where Lance was. He dove toward him through the air, but in his urgency to get there fast he hadn’t accounted for the path the ship’s laser was going to veer off on. It turned toward him suddenly and he hardly had time to shout in distress before something barreled into his side, knocking him out of the way.

Keith landed with a thud next to the prisoners, coughing wildly into his hand as the dust settled around the explosions. He sat upright the second his ears stopped ringing, eyes searching the minefield urgently until he spotted a flash of blue in the dirt. The ship had left, no doubt assuming them dead, but there was still gunfire coming in hot from all sides.

Keith got up and ran toward Lance, hoping that all of the bombs had already gone off. He slid across the ground, coming to a stop next to Lance’s heaving body. He was doubled over in pain, body covered half in the settling dust of the planet, but the red splattered around him made it pretty clear that he wasn’t in the best shape beneath that dirt.

Keith ducked as a bullet flew particularly close to his head, cursing lowly.

Lance looked out of it, eyes out of focus and chest rising and falling far too quickly to be normal. Keith kneeled over him, protecting him from any stray bullets and trying to get him to focus. “I’m gonna get you out of the line of fire so try and work with me here.”

Lance nodded groggily and Keith took that as the best answer he was going to get. He slid his hands under Lance’s arms and hauled him upright, immediately freezing when Lance let out a wail of pain at the movement. Keith looked down at him, at where blood was pooling where he’d just been lying.

“Shit, shit, shit.” Lance cursed repeatedly, head lolling back against Keith’s shoulder. It was probably for the best he wasn’t seeing what Keith was seeing right now.

Keith had been through a lot during this war, of course he’d seen his fair share of bloodshed. Blood didn’t make him squeamish anymore, like it used to when he was a kid and his father would take him out on hunting trips. He was immune to it. You see enough of anything and it gets to the point that it just doesn’t bother you anymore.

Except for now. He’d seen his teammates beat up, he’d seen them slashed open or bruised over every inch of their skin. He’d never seen them missing whole limbs. Plural.

“Breathe.” Keith said, mostly to himself until he realized Lance wasn’t breathing in his arms. He shook Lance, growing desperate and smacking him in the face. He was likely going into shock, but Keith needed him around right now. “Fucking breathe, Lance.”

Keith removed slices of fabric from his uniform, mumbling a quiet apology to Lance as he tied a tourniquet onto both the stumps that remained of his legs. Lance cried out in pain, but Keith grit his teeth and did what needed to be done. His hands came away painted red, the smell of blood heavy in the air, but he couldn’t focus on that right now.

Keith hauled him up and threw Lance’s mostly-limp body over his shoulder, running toward other side of the minefield. He knew that if Lance were in his right mind he’d be protesting the fact they were leaving the civilians before, he also knew that Kolivan would never forgive him if that intel didn’t make it back to the base.

None of that stopped him from running as far away from that place as fast as his legs could carry him.

He didn’t stop until he reached the roof of one of the buildings. He propped Lance up against the door, kneeling next to him and reeling as he tried to make contact with his communicator.

“Next step?” Lance wheezed, now that he was managing to breath somewhat steadily again. Keith looked over at him, frowning deeply when Lance forced a weak smile in his direction. His lips barely twitched upward. Keith was going to be sick.

“Don’t… die.”

“Trying not to, buddy.” Lance chuckled, immediately following it up with a distorted whine. Keith was on him in a second, hands flying over his body and looking for any other wounds that might be causing serious blood loss. “Oh, f-fuck, hurts like a bitch though. I think I might have broken every bone in my body. I can’t even feel my legs right now.”

“Mm.” Keith hummed, deciding that the legs situation was something for another time. He tried the communicator again. “We need backup immediately. I’m sending you my coordinates now. We have a paladin down, do you copy?”

Keith slumped back against the door, offered nothing but a hollow promise from his mother that she’d get there soon. Soon didn’t do him any fucking good. Lance was dying next to him, growing more delirious by the second as he struggled to stay conscious.

He slumped into Keith’s side, exhaling raggedly.

“Is there a lot of blood? How bad is it?” Lance asked, glancing up at Keith as best he could without actually moving his body. Whatever he saw on Keith’s face must not have been good. Lance’s voice dropped to something very quiet and unsure, absolutely terrified. There was the terror that he should have felt before, so he could have prevented this. “That bad?”

And Keith, he wanted to lie to him. Any other time he would have. He would have cradled Lance close and made up some bullshit hopeful lie about how everything was going to be fine. It just didn’t seem right this time, looking at the state Lance was in. Whole parts of him were missing.

Keith looked down at him, tears building in his eyes.

“It wasn’t supposed to be you!” Keith roared, slamming his head backward so hard it smacked off the door. He didn’t care, just stayed like that and stared up at the smoky war-skies overhead. “You weren’t…”

Keith trailed off, his words failing and turning into nonsensical blubbering. He doubled over himself, burying his face into his knees despite the dirt and blood smeared into his suit. Lance exhaled shakily next to him.

“Keith, don’t cry, I don’t want your ugly snot-face to be the last thing I see.” Lance joked, trying to grasp at straws even now. He was always so very focused on everyone else, all the time. He was lying there on his deathbed and worrying about Keith because he was crying a little bit about it!

“You weren’t supposed to do this, you idiot! You selfish, selfless jerk! Why would you?!”

“The universe needed me to.” Lance huffed, sounding almost insulted that Keith was trying to belittle his sacrifice just now. Keith had been in his shoes so many times before, but standing on the outside looking in he couldn’t believe how stupid it all was. “Greater good and all that.”

“So? Why do you give a damn what the universe wants when you know what _you_ want?” Keith asked him, eyes narrowing. Lance stared back, visibly confused in his disoriented state. “You care! You… you don’t _want_ to die.”

Something flitted across Lance’s features then, but the predominant emotion was hurt.

“Do _you_?” Lance asked, eyelids fluttering in a conscious effort to stay awake. “Do you want to die?”

“I don’t… know.” Keith answered, huffing in frustration. This was the last thing they needed to be worrying about right now, he’d been forced to sit through enough lectures from Shiro after his attempt at a self-sacrifice. This was supposed to be about Lance.

He bristled, averting his eyes. “I don’t care.”

“Why not?” Lance asked, his face pinched in pain as he stared quizzically in Keith’s direction. Keith ran a hand through his hair, annoyed with himself for not having a better answer. He shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, tearing up at the sheer nothingness he had to offer. Lance didn’t seem to be judging him though, just silently listening. “You haven’t lived yet, then.”

Keith felt the slightest bit defensive about that.

“What more could there possibly be to living? I’ve seen things people on Earth can’t even imagine, I’ve saved countless lives, what else do I _need_?”

“Ever have your heart broken?” Lance asked, the words flying out of his mouth the second Keith finished speaking. Keith turned to stare at Lance, fully convinced his friend was losing his mind from the pain. He seemed mostly lucid though, his eyes unwavering as they stared up at Keith. He’d slumped a little bit since Keith had leaned him against the door, unable to hold up his own weight.

“What?” Keith asked, furrowing his eyebrows together. “Why would that make life worth living? Doesn’t it suck?”

Keith had watched Lance go through a heartbreak recently. While Allura had dealt with the painful loss of Lotor, an ally she’d come to trust and maybe even something more, Lance had been there for her every step of the way. Being back with the team, Keith watched from afar as Lance pined after her. He didn’t really care, or understand it even, but then the time had come that Lance admitted his feelings to Allura.

She’d rejected him. Kindly, of course. She let him down easy and told him she needed time to work on herself, but it was clearly a rejection. Keith didn’t see much of Lance for the next few weeks following that, during their visit to Earth he went home to stay with his family and Keith stayed with the Alteans to help where he could. His help was hardly ever needed.

Lance was different when he came back from staying with his family. Happier, but sadder too. His smiles hardly ever reached his eyes, he didn’t laugh with the team like he used to. He just… put the mission first. Always.

More than once, Pidge and Hunk had joked that Lance was becoming a carbon copy of Keith.

“It does. It, uh, really does.” Lance coughed, a dribble of blood trailing past his lips. Keith’s eyes widened, his hand darting out to wipe it away, like the longer he stared at it the more real it’d become. “Life isn’t just a checklist of experiences, Keith, you gotta… open your eyes and really look at what’s going on around you. It’s the little things.”

“I don’t understand.” Keith replied. He watched as Lance’s eyes started to close, eyelids drooping like he just couldn’t hold them open. Keith reached out and cupped his face, gently slapping his cheeks. “Lance, stop it!”

“Just, gimme a second or two, I need to rest my eyes.” Lance mumbled, words slurring together.

“Stop it!” Keith screamed at him, uncaring if it drew the attention of any nearby enemy soldiers. Lance blinked his eyes back open, looking at him tiredly. Keith growled at him. “You fucking prick, if you die on me right now I swear on the stars I’ll kill myself right here next to you!”

“What?”

“I’ll do it.” Keith insisted, drawing his blade and holding it up pointedly. Lance stared blankly for a long moment, before a smile graced his lips. A genuine one, the kind that made the corners of his eyes crinkle and his nose scrunch up and his dimples show through. Keith wheezed like he’d taken a punch to the gut.

“You’re one crazy fuck, you know that?” Lance laughed weakly, coughing up a storm afterward. He started to slump down again and Keith acted on impulse, hauling Lance’s limp body into his lap and cradling him against his chest. Their size difference was more notable now, Keith stared down at the way Lance could perfectly curl up against his front.

Lance’s head lay on his chest, his unsteady breathing heavy and loud this close to Keith’s ears. Keith stared down at him, unable to look away, terrified that every second might be Lance’s last. Lance glanced down, hand clumsily fumbling over the red stains on Keith’s chest. “M’sorry for getting you all bloody.”

“I think I could love you.” Keith blurted, voice breaking off into a whimper. Lance stiffened remotely against him, the words having an obvious impact. Keith sniffled, hiding his face in Lance’s hair and shushing him gently when he started to let out pained little noises. “If I learned how, I mean.”

“You gay?” Lance croaked, peering up at Keith from beneath his bangs. Keith nodded. “Nice.”

They lapsed into silence then. It didn’t last long, Lance started to droop a few seconds later and Keith had to try and jostle him back awake. It was getting harder and harder to keep him around.

“Lance, come on, don’t do this to me.” Keith tried to reason with him, like Lance had any control over it at this point. A good few minutes had passed and though Keith had managed to cut off most of the blood flow, he’d already lost so much. Keith bit his lip, looking at all the other injuries that littered Lance’s arms and chest. “The universe needs you.”

“You just told me I shouldn’t care what the universe asks for.” Lance responded, his voice a whisper.

Keith’s bottom lip trembled, his tears falling one by one into Lance’s hair.

“ _I_ need you.” Keith corrected, grabbing Lance’s hand and gently weaving their fingers together. He was uncertain where all Lance was injured and vowed just to be careful no matter what. “I’ve never needed anyone, but I need you.”

“You’ll find someone else.”

“No.”

“You will.”

“You need to teach me how to feel.” Keith insisted, grabbing Lance’s jaw and forcibly turning the other boy to face him. Lance’s eyes were barely blinking open anymore, staying closed for long passes of time as he tried to form a response.

“Can’t you see? I am.” Keith felt the remaining shreds of his composure breaking. Fat, ugly tears welled in his eyes and he cried like he hadn’t in years, desperately begging Lance to stay awake, to stay with him just a little bit longer.

Lance slumped against him. This time he didn’t stir no matter how Keith screamed and cried.

\--

Coming out of a healing pod was a sensation Lance never quite got used to. It was less like waking up from a nice nap and more like he imagined being born was probably like. One second he was entirely at peace and warm, the next he was being literally hurled out into the most overwhelming environment his brain could conjure up. All of his processing was slowed down so all he could really understand was that everything was too bright and too loud, and he wanted to go back to wherever he’d been before.

He stumbled out, gasping for air a little bit. His hand settled on the pod to brace himself as he ever so slowly came back to his mind.

“Dios mio.” Lance grumbled, rubbing at his temples. There was so much chatter around him, the whole team had to have been just hanging out in the room waiting for him to get out. Hm, at least he was getting a warm welcome back. “Guys, not so loud, my head is pounding.”

“Lance!” Someone shouted, finally taking notice of him leaning against the closed pod. He cracked open one eye, smiling over at Pidge. He closed his eyes again then, trying to quell the dizziness.

“You idiot! What were you _thinking_ ?!” That shrill screech was undoubtedly one angry Allura. It was very rare that she lost her composure so completely, but over the past few months as Lance watched her move on from Lotor he’d seen it more than a few times. _Still_ , he didn’t think he deserved the same ear-shattering screech for almost dying that Lotor got for all the bullshit he’d pulled.

“Princess, please.” Lance pleaded, waving his hand dismissively through the air. “Quieter.”

“Y-You… you… quiznak!” Allura yelled, marching up to him. Lance hardly had time to prepare and register the face of rage before he was engulfed in a bone-crushing hug. He squeaked as Allura pulled him in, knocking the air from his lungs.

“Ouch.” Lance whined, squirming in her old. His legs felt weird beneath him, shaky and unstable like they weren’t entirely healed yet. It wasn’t so bad when he’d had the pod to lean against, but now he could tell the moment Allura let him go he would collapse.

“Let her hug you, dumbass.” Pidge grumbled from somewhere at his right. It was clear that they were hovering too, hopeful to get in on the hug action even though they wanted to pretend they were above it all. “You _died_ , you know? Your heart stopped beating, we had to resuscitate you.”

“ _Pidgeon_ , you been waiting outside my pod this _whole_ time?” Lance crooned, turning to smirk at them.

“Pfft, I would have if there was room.” Pidge snorted, rolling their eyes. They did step closer though, sliding up to Lance’s side and hugging him tight.

“Yeah, Hunk’s a pretty big guy, takes up a lot of room.” Lance laughed loudly. He looked over Pidge’s shoulder, feeling a significant missing element to this group hug. While he spotted Shiro and Coran lingering back and giving him a chance to breathe, it seemed Hunk was nowhere to be found. “Where is the love of my life now?”

A silence fell over the room.

“It wasn’t Hunk that waited by your pod,” Pidge explained, their tone unsure. “It was Keith.”

Lance blinked, pulling back from Allura. He thought back to his blurry last memories before going unconscious, he remembered Keith being there with him. Keith fighting with him to stay awake, Keith crying, Keith saying the “L” word, Keith… who had said he’d kill himself if Lance died.

According to Pidge, Lance had definitely been pronounced dead.

“Keith?” Lance choked out, his heart suddenly racing. “Is he okay?!”

When no one gave him an immediate answer and they instead started to avert their eyes, Lance had no choice but to take matters into his own hands. He pushed away from Allura in a hurry, desperate to look into the other pods and make sure Keith’s stupid ass wasn’t locked up in one of them too.

“Lance, calm down, you’re not fully adjusted to-” Allura tried to warn him, but it was too late.

Lance took one step on his own and promptly found himself soaring toward the ground at a rapid rate, his face first. Allura caught him just before his face hit the ground, hauling him back up onto his feet. His feet that still rocked and teetered like he was standing on stilts.

He looked down at himself. At first glance, nothing looked out of the ordinary with the legs of the healing pod suit he was wearing. Then his gaze traveled lower, to where the suit failed to cover his feet. His feet that no reflected back to him as metal. Lance started to hyperventilate right about then, falling flat onto his ass on purpose so he could yank up the legs of his suit.

He ran his hands over the prosthetics that made up both of his legs, traveling as far as he could hike his pant leg up. Lance felt tears building in his eyes.

“Allura.” Lance spoke evenly, hands curling into frustrated fists in his lap. He was helpless to do anything, it was clear the damage had already been done. “Where are my legs?”

“Lance.” Allura spoke gently, kneeling next to him. She placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed in support, but Lance felt numb to it. “We couldn’t save them, there wasn’t anything left to stitch back up.”

Lance processed that information slowly, thinking back to the exploding mine field he’d willingly launched himself into to save Keith. It was a wonder he came out with any part of him left. He wouldn’t have survived it without Keith taking care of him afterward, he was sure of that.

He thought of the way Keith had held him, the entire exchange having a whole new meaning knowing now that he must have known that Lance’s legs were compromised. He sat there through that and put Lance first no matter how painful that must have been to look at. He’d been like a rock, so supportive while Lance fell apart and died in his arms.

“Is Keith okay?” Lance choked out, gritting his teeth together. He could handle everything else, but if he found out that Keith was gone because of him… he wouldn’t be able to live with himself. The mere thought had him petrified where he sat, shaking on the floor.

“Keith?” Pidge chuckled, sounding deeply confused. “Why are you asking about Keith, you literally just found out your lower body is almost entirely prosthetics and you’re not even gonna ask about the condition of your di-”

“Pidge, inappropriate.” Shiro snapped, finally speaking up from where he stood near the doors. Lance looked toward him, hopeful for some answers finally. “Keith’s fine. He’s on mandatory bedrest and it’s currently Hunk’s shift to watch him. They’re both in the medbay.”

“Don’t lie to me, he wouldn’t be in the medbay if he were “ _fine_ ”.” Lance snapped, surprising himself with the aggression suddenly present in his tone. He reached up, burying his face in his hands. “I need to know that he’s okay. So what gives? What did he do?”

“He didn’t eat or sleep for four weeks, outside of what we managed to literally wrestle him into with feeding tubes and sedatives.” Shiro informed him, his voice grim. Lance blinked, scrubbing away the tears on his cheeks in confusion. He’d been expecting the worst, but the more time Lance took to think about that the more painful it became. Keith was like a machine in the way he operated, he’d always had to take care of and look after himself. The idea of him just giving all that up...

“What?”

“He didn’t want to leave this room.” Shiro walked down the steps, sitting on the ground next to Lance and placing a hand on his thigh. His prosthetic thigh. Lance couldn’t even feel it. “He didn’t want to leave you.”

“Thank god there’s an adjacent bathroom or else we probably would have had to strap a diaper onto him, too.” Pidge muttered, wrinkling their nose in disgust.

“Pidge.” Shiro scolded, but it was clearly a lighthearted chastising. It was obvious that they were all very relieved to have Lance back again, but that only made Lance worry more that he’d been gone for a longer time than he would have originally thought. Keith sitting up for one day next to the pod was painful to picture, but weeks or months of sacrificing himself to stay close to Lance?

Lance pushed off from the ground, attempting to stand. Immediately, he had three pairs of hands on his body steadying him. He continued trying to blaze ahead despite their presence. “Lance? You okay?”

“Hey, don’t push yourself, we don’t wanna have to put you back in there so soon.”

“They’re right, you don’t look so good.” Coran commented, watching as Lance futilely grappled with his stupid new legs to try and take his first few steps. “You should sit down and rest.”

“I wanna see him.” Lance blurted, urgency seeping into his tone. He hated having to ask for help, but it was clear he wasn’t getting anywhere very fast like this and he didn’t have time to spare right now. He had to see that Keith was okay with his own two eyes.

He turned to Shiro, eyes pleading. “Can I see him?”

Lance didn’t feel he needed to specify who he was suddenly dying to see. He felt impatient and determined, even if they were to tell him no right now he’d find a way to get to Keith. He’d crawl like a baby if he damn well had to. His expression must have translated as much, because Shiro didn’t look too keen on fighting him on it.

“Yeah, of course.” Shiro relented, sliding an arm under Lance’s armpits and letting his body be used as a makeshift crutch. Lance leaned into his side, taking a deep breath. “Can you walk with support or do you need me to carry you?”

“I’ll try walking.” Lance insisted, taking his first shaky step on his new legs. When he didn’t immediately collapse, he took another. Soon they’d crossed most of the healing pod room and were well on their way to the medbay next door. “That’s gonna take some getting used to.”

“I bet.” Allura laughed, walking on Lance’s other side so he could have even more support. “How are you feeling? Be honest. We’ll let you visit either way, but we need to know. Are you dizzy? Nauseous? Headaches? How do your legs feel?”

“I mean, my legs probably feel pretty piecey at the moment.” Lance joked, grinning at the blank look Allura offered in response. Didn’t she get the joke? “Get it? They got blown into smithereens?”

“You’re not funny, asshole.” Pidge commented from where they were trailing along behind the others.

“Too soon?” Lance laughed, getting his answer in the form of harsh glares. He sighed deeply, deciding he’d try to answer the questions seriously. “I’m fine, guys, really. The robot legs are cool and I don’t really feel… anything? They’re not comfortable or uncomfortable. They’re just confusing.”

“Okay, good.” Allura exhaled loudly, sounding very relieved. Lance was about to ask if they’d had reason to believe his legs wouldn’t be comfortable, when Shiro spoke up on his other side.

“I feel like we should warn you.”

“What?” Lance asked, fear skyrocketing again. They’d stopped outside of the medbay doors, but Shiro was very blatantly not allowing Lance to move ahead any further unless he wanted to do so on his own.

“Keith… isn’t so good.” Shiro spoke softly, looking sadly down at his feet. Lance tried to keep an optimistic outlook, reminding himself that Keith was still alive and well enough that he didn’t need a healing pod at least. Though, Lance wasn’t sure if healing pods could cure lack of food or sleep.

“What? I lost half of my body and Keith looks worse off than me?” Lance joked, trying his very best to lighten the mood. When Shiro didn’t even crack a smile, Lance’s expression fell away into his deepest frown yet. “Open the door, Shiro.”

The door slid open, revealing the mostly-empty medbay.

“Hey guys, is my shift over already? I kinda lost track of t-” Hunk started to say, looking up from the book in his hands. He lit up like a switchboard then, jaw dropping and eyes going wide. “Lance!”

“God, are you a sight for sore eyes.” Lance laughed, opening his arms as wide as he could with Shiro still using them to support his weight. “Come here, lay it on me.”

“I was so worried about you!” Hunk shouted, running across the room. He barreled into Lance and knocked him off his feet, along with Shiro who fell next to them. He didn’t even bother to try and scold Hunk for it though, just watched on fondly as Hunk smothered Lance in a tackle hug. “Don’t you ever, ever do that again! You hear me?”

Lance nodded rapidly, giggling uncontrollably as Hunk squished him and tickled at his sides. Lance pulled back, clasping Hunk’s face between his hands.

“I’d never be able to say goodbye to this face twice.” Lance assured him, leaning in to place a kiss to both of Hunk’s tear-stained cheeks. He held his friend’s face in his hands, starting to tear up himself at the mere thought of not coming back to this. “You have my word.”

At that, Hunk quickly tackled him back down to the floor in another hug.

“Hunk.” Shiro laughed, patting Hunk on the back as he noticed Lance was struggling to catch his breath while being hugged to death. Hunk whined loudly, reluctantly pulling back.

“I know, I know, but I don’t want to let him go.” Hunk pouted. “Can’t Keith have his turn later?”

“Keith.” Lance blurted suddenly, eyes going wide. He pushed Hunk aside, sitting up so fast it made his head spin a little bit. He clutched it in his hand, eyes scanning the room. Sure enough, the bed that Hunk had been closest to was certainly occupied. “I wanna see him now, I-”

“Calm down, don’t stress yourself out.” Shiro insisted, helping Lance to his feet. “You can see him.”

The whole team walked him over to where Keith was resting, all of them purposefully silent as they let Lance have his moment.

He stepped closer than the others, bracing himself against the edge of Keith’s mattress.

Keith was resting despite all the commotion they’d made before. His eyes lightly shut, his hair falling in a dark halo around his head, his lips pale and chapped. The more Lance looked, the more he noticed the little telltale signs that Keith’s self-care had been crumbling. Lance could see his ribs through the tight shirt he was wearing and the dark circles under his eyes could rival a raccoon.

“He looks more like a corpse than I do.” Lance commented, reaching up to brush Keith’s bangs away from his face. They were much longer than Lance remembered them being, meaning he really had been in the pod for a good while. His frown deepened. “Always stealing the spotlight, Kogane.”

“Ha.” Pidge snorted. Lance ignored that though, turning to the machine that was hooked up to Keith. It was some kind of tube, transporting a sloshy blue liquid into Keith’s veins directly. Lance hitched an eyebrow up his forehead.

“He’s asleep because of those?”

“Yeah.” Pidge explained, clearing their throat. “Natural anesthesia from the planet Biaol, it isn’t harmful to him in any way. Then there’s one that’s giving him nutrients because that’s the best we can do short of holding his gaping maw open and shoving food down his throat ourselves.”

“Can we… take him off of it?” Lance asked quietly, settling into the chair Hunk had been in before and resting his chin on the pillow next to Keith. Lance simply stared, long and forlorn. Keith looked so sickly and unhealthy, but so peaceful in his sleep. He almost looked dead, but Lance didn’t dare to think about that now.

“It took a lot for us to get him in here again after last time. He was animalistic, Lance, we had to use a dart gun like we were some kind of big game hunters.” Pidge explained carefully, clearly trying to talk Lance out of waking him up just yet. It was clear that he needed all the rest he could get still, but Lance wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “He did not like the idea of us taking him away from you, even though he was literally killing himself to be there.”

“He did warn me he was gonna do that.” Lance muttered, rolling his eyes fondly. Leave it to Keith.

“Hm?”

“Wake him up.” Lance insisted, reaching for Keith’s hand and holding it between both of his. “He’ll sleep and eat willingly now that I’m out, I promise. I’ll personally make sure of it.”

“Okay.” Pidge said, though they still sounded a little bit reluctant. They walked around to the machine that was pumping the anesthesia into Keith and began unhooking it. Lance squeezed Keith’s hand like he’d be able to feel it in his unconscious state. “He’s gonna be a little bit groggy at first, kinda like after the dentist.”

“Oh, sweet, I’ve always wanted to see Keith high out of his mind.” Lance chuckled, smiling gently.

The rest of the team stood back to let Pidge work, but Lance couldn’t have moved from that spot even if he’d wanted to. Luckily, Pidge seemed to have missed him enough to even allow him in their workspace and not be annoyed with his presence. They had Keith unstrapped in a minute or two.

He started stirring not long after that, eyes fluttering open. Pidge was leaning over him, shining a light in his eyes like some kind of evil scientist.

“Pidge?” Keith slurred, squinting lamely at the light assaulting his eyes. Lance snickered next to him, but Keith seemed too out of it to notice his presence just yet.

“Hiya, please don’t try and stab me once you realize where you are and why.” Pidge told Keith, nodding kindly at him in a truce. “The last time you did that was terrifying and we’ve since hidden any and all sharp objects in the room.”

“Huh?” Keith huffed, starting to laugh. God, it was the most bubbly and giddy laugh Lance had ever heard slip past Keith’s lips. It was like his filter was entirely gone, he giggled like a child over what was seemingly nothing. “You’re _funny_.”

“Yeah? Glad you think so.” Pidge muttered, carefully propping Keith up a little bit against his pillow, making sure he didn’t turn toward Lance just yet. “We’ve got a little present for you, but you gotta be gentle. Can you do that for us?”

“Gentle.” Keith repeated, eyes lazily blinking as he processed the request. Finally, after an unbearably long pause on Lance’s part, Keith nodded his agreement. “Hm, yeah.”

Pidge grabbed Keith’s face rather unceremoniously then, turning him the opposite direction. Given where Lance was sitting right beside him, it was no surprise their eyes met right away. Lance lit up, his heart beating unsteadily in his chest. He lifted Keith’s hand, pressing a kiss to his knuckles. Any other time he might have hesitated to do so, but Keith was still mostly out of his mind and clearly happy to see him anyway.

“Hey.” Lance laughed as Keith sat bolt upright, groaning in pain before collapsing into Lance. Shiro made a move as if to pry them apart and help Lance out, but Lance shot him a brutal glare and he backed off right quick. Lance easily readjusted Keith until his head was resting more comfortably on Lance’s shoulder.

“ _Lance_.” Keith sighed happily, nuzzling his face into Lance’s neck. “Where have you been? Missed you.”

“I missed you too.” Lance whispered back, carefully pushing Keith back. He leaned closer, resting their foreheads together so he could keep Keith’s wandering attention on him. “You don’t look so hot, what’s this I hear about you not taking care of yourself?”

“I really missed you.” Keith repeated again, the swirling violet of his pupils nearly intoxicating at such a close proximity. Lance swallowed harshly, unsure what to make of the blatant heart-eyes Keith was giving him when their faces were pressed so closely together. Lance leaned away, or attempted to, but Keith just leaned right after him and nearly fell out of his medical bed in his rush to pursue Lance’s touch.

Lance caved, settling for hugging Keith to his chest.

“Keith.” Lance tried again, keeping his tone very low and level. He wanted Keith to take him seriously about this. “Why haven’t you been sleeping and eating?”

“Couldn’t.” Keith mumbled quietly, his voice shaking slightly with poorly-concealed emotion. Lance suddenly regretted asking and putting pressure on Keith so soon. “Don’t leave again.”

“I won’t, I’m right here.” Lance assured him hurriedly, patting up and down his back while they held each other close. “I’ve got you.”

“You guys have another bonding moment while you were dying this time?” Pidge asked, their tone blunt and bored. Judging by the gasps of the other paladins, they’d been trying to be discreet about what they thought of Keith and Lance’s strangely emotionally-charged reunion. Lance snickered to himself.

Let them wonder.

“Yeah, something like that.”

“Oh, and you remember it this time? Must have been a big deal.” Pidge hummed curiously, leaning over to stare at where Keith’s face was buried into Lance’s neck, his weak little hands clutching onto Lance’s shirt so hard they were white-knuckled. “Should we leave you two alone?”

“You know we can’t do that, we don’t know how Keith will react once he’s more lucid and Lance is still in a weakened state.” Hunk pointed out, frowning deeply.

“You guys are talking about him like he’s a wild animal.” Lance grumbled at them, turning to glare at each of them over his shoulder. They all shrunk back a few steps except for Shiro, who lingered close. Lance glared even harder at him. “He’s fine. We’re fine. Please give us a moment alone, then we’ll come find you in the dining room after. Make my favorite food to celebrate, Hunk?”

“You’re sure?” Shiro asked, still worried about his teammates. Lance appreciated it, but it was entirely unnecessary. Keith wasn’t a risk to him.

“This is a communicator we’ve been using to talk to whoever was on Keith-watching duty, if you need anything let us know.” Hunk explained, handing a small communicator over to Lance. He set it aside, already knowing he wouldn’t need it.

“Okay.” Lance told them, smiling at his teammates. “Go get dinner ready, we’ll be there whenever you announce it.”

The rest of the team left the room, leaving Lance alone with an armful of drugged up Keith. He enjoyed letting Keith cling to him and maul him for a good twenty minutes before he seemed to start coming out of it. His senses came back to him slowly.

“Ugh.”

“How you feeling?”

“Hurts.” Keith whined simply, reaching up to hold his hand between his hands. Lance shushed him, raking his nails through Keith’s hair and earning a shaky pleased exhale. He kept up with it until Keith’s expression looked less pained and more blissed out.

“It’ll get better soon, it’s probably starting to wear off.” Lance explained, nose wrinkling in disgust when his hand pulled away from Keith’s hair with a literal stick. From the woods. “When was the last time your gross ass showered, anyway? You smell like shit.”

“You smell worse, like you’ve been drenched in bleach.” Keith teased, leaning back so they could look each other in the face as Keith stuck his tongue out at Lance. Lance glared at him and eventually Keith’s face fell, pouting until Lance finally opened his arms and accepted him back into another hug.

Keith relaxed against his chest. “You’re so… warm.”

“You’d probably find a mouse warm with how cold you are right now, you don’t have an ounce of fat on your bones.” Lance chastised, pinching the tiny amount of fat left on Keith’s hips. “I’m gonna spend the next week stumbling around on these electronic pogo sticks so I can force-feed your stupid ass back to a healthy weight. If that’s not commitment then I don’t know what is.”

“Shut-up.” Keith said, but then stiffened in Lance’s arms the moment the other boy actually listened. He lifted his head, eyes imploring as they searched Lance’s. “Don’t… _actually_. Keep talking, I like listening to your voice.”

“Yeah?” Lance grinned. He clambered up onto the bed with Keith, clumsily falling down sprawled out next to him, their bodies cuddled up close. He propped himself up on one elbow, looking down at Keith as Keith stared adoringly back up at him. “I’m so happy to be here. I know you’re gonna hit me once you get a little bit more sense back into your skull, but I think it was worth it? I’ve tried everything to get under your skin, to try and make you feel anything for me at all, but you were always so far away. It was like you looked right through me, through everything. And now you’re… you’re looking at me. And I think you’re liking what you see? So it was worth it, to me.”

“Mm.” Keith hummed, still not fully there but eyes filling with more recognition and understanding with each passing second. Lance swallowed, reaching down to tuck Keith’s hair behind his ear.

“Not only that, but the others talked like maybe you’re looking at them too, or at least showing them emotions that you’ve never shown before because you’ve never had them before. You’ve never known how to embrace them before, at least. So if it helped you get to a point where maybe your life has meaning and value to you beyond serving the universe’s bidding… so worth it.”

“Lance?”

“Yeah?”

“ _Lance_?”

“The one and only, you’re speaking to him.” Lance drawled dramatically, holding up his hand in a phone gesture. “Wanna leave a message or?”

“You’re awake.” Keith pointed out, attempting to sit up only to collapse back against the bed when he realized his legs were entangled with Lance’s. He laid there with shock written across all his features, his cheeks darkening to a deep red blush. “You’re, you-”

“I am.” Lance interrupted. As much as he’d loved the sleepy and cuddly drugged-up version of Keith from before, he was eager to rush into the proper reunion he’d been waiting on. This was his Keith coming back to him just now. “How have you been, buddy?”

“Terrible.” Keith gasped out, rubbing his hands over his face. “I thought I was gonna die.”

“You were!” Lance hissed, slapping Keith’s arm gently. “Starving yourself? Refusing to sleep? Spending your life at the foot of my pod? What is this, modern-day Romeo and Juliet _on crack_?!”

“Ow.” Keith mumbled, repeating himself louder when Lance hit him again for that rather lackluster response to the rant. “ _Ow_!”

“You’re an idiot.”

“You’re here.” Keith responded, apparently still hung-up on that fact. “You’re really here.”

“You’re an idiot.” Lance mirrored his words, deciding they could just go back and forth like this until Keith realized he was stuck on repeat. “You’re really an id-”

Lance was cut off when Keith abruptly engulfed him in a hug, tugging him down into the sheets. Lance went willingly, his breath knocked out of him as Keith wrapped around him like a koala. His arms and legs wound around Lance’s body tight, bringing him closer.

“I missed you.” Keith whispered, but this time he wasn’t delirious due to medication. Sure, he might have still been feeling the after-effects, but it was clear he was mostly back to himself. Keith was all there in the head and he was still wound around Lance like this, shyly whispering the same words he’d said with such confidence before.

“So you’ve said.” Lance smirked.

“I’ve never missed anything like I missed you.” Keith continued quietly. “It hurt so much.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Shut-up, I said it first.” Lance huffed, messing up Keith’s hair to spite him. “Now, what did we learn from this?”

“Sorry, what?” Keith asked, lifting his head to stare curiously at Lance. “I’m having a little trouble keeping up with-”

“If you ever try to sacrifice yourself again, I want you to think about how that felt.” Lance interrupted, his voice cold and harsh. “I want you to think about me going through what you just did, but the light at the end of the tunnel being snuffed out because you _don’t_ make it. How do you think that would feel? If they hadn’t been able to bring me back?”

“Why would you ask me to think about that again?” Keith croaked, his voice cracking in pain.

“I don’t want to lose you _either_ , Keith.” Lance explained, sighing. “I know you don’t have a whole lot of personal value placed on your life right now, but _I do_. If you die, I’m going to die with you, even if I’m still physically here. I would lose a part of who I am, the most important one, the one you’re just now learning about inside of yourself. Don’t you dare put me through that.”

“I won’t. I wouldn’t wish that emptiness on Zarkon himself. I promise.” Keith paused, his eyes welling up with tears as he took the time to actually look at Lance. “I’m so sorry.”

“I know.” Lance responded easily, sitting up. Keith followed his lead, the both of them sitting side-by-side in the bed so they could have a proper conversation. “It’s okay.”

“It isn’t, not really.” Keith mumbled, staring down at his lap. “How many times did I pull stunts like you just did and walk away unscathed like I was some kind of hero, all proud of myself… while you were feeling like _this_ on the sidelines? I hurt you.”

“So many times.” Lance admitted, smirking over at Keith. “I wanted to kill you myself sometimes.”

“I wouldn’t have stopped you. I deserved it.”

“No, you didn’t. No one deserves that. You deserve to be _happy_.” Lance groaned, wishing he could just drill this into Keith’s head and it would stay. His time with the Blades and his time alone on that planet with his mother had done something to him, made him revert back into himself and strengthen all of his defenses. It was the Galra way, but Lance could see the human side of Keith suffering for it.

He was too scared to mention it before, to be the first to reach out and try to pull Keith back from the hell he’d lost himself in. A near death experience put a lot of things into perspective for a person though, and Keith’s importance to him was certainly one of them. “Would you stop me now?”

“I don’t want to die, Lance, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“It’s not.”

“I want to live.” Keith answered the unspoken question, smiling widely at Lance. “I-I want to be here. I would give anything to stay here. I _care_.”

“You mean that?” Lance asked, unable to hide how much it meant to him. Keith turned to him, cheeks swelling with a small simple smile, a personable one just for Lance’s eyes. He averted his eyes, then quickly looked back to Lance. He leaned in quick as a ninja, planting a kiss to Lance’s cheek.

“I do.” Keith whispered as he pulled away, his entire face aflame in a blush. Lance gaped, reaching up to run his fingertips over the place he’d just been kissed.

“You ever kiss anyone before that?” Lance asked quietly. Keith shook his head. “Well, I’m about to teach you another lesson about life.”

“Yeah? What’s that? How to kiss?” Keith asked, a smug look on his face.

“How good it feels to show someone you care about how you feel through _touch_.” Lance elaborated, his eyebrows wiggling with the implication of it all. Keith rolled his eyes, but he didn’t even attempt to pretend he wasn’t interested in what Lance was offering. In fact, whether he realized it or not, Lance could see him leaning subtly closer with each passing second.

Finally, Lance decided to cave and give in. He leaned in and gripped Keith’s jaw, bringing their lips together in a sweet kiss. It wasn’t particularly heated or desperate like he’d expected it to be after it taking so long for them both to come to terms with their feelings, instead it was slow and loving. They didn’t need to move fast or hard to express the intense emotions sparking between them.

Lance’s hand slid up Keith’s chest, tangling into his hair at the base of his mullet. Keith smirked against his lips, the utter bastard, like he’d been expecting Lance to pull that move.

They pulled apart, then immediately went back in for another kiss and a few more pecks after that, until finally they were sated. Lance flopped back against the bed, his entire body feeling like jelly. He was on cloud nine and nothing could bring him down. “It’s something else, right? What do you think?”

“I think I’d let you tear my heart out and stomp on it right now, and I’d say _thank-you_ for it.” Keith huffed, breathless as he fell back against the pillow next to Lance. He reached up, wiping his sleeve across his mouth. “I feel… so much.”

“Me too.” Lance paused, remembering another snippet of conversation from the day Keith had saved his life. He smiled sweetly at Keith, feeling the slightest bit nervous. “How’s the other lesson coming, by the way?”

“Hm?”

“You know, the whole “learning how to love” schtick?”

“Hm, it’s a work in progress.” Keith decided aloud, tapping his fingertip to his chin in thought. He turned then, lifting an eyebrow when he saw how closely Lance was watching. “But I suppose you’ve already graduated top of the class?”

“You bet, there’s nothing I know better than loving Keith Kogane.” Lance responded easily, throwing up a pair of finger guns. Keith spluttered.

“Don’t… _say that_.”

“What? That I love you?” Lance repeated, relishing in the flustered way Keith choked on his own spit. He shifted closer, petting all over Keith’s hair and face, desperate to familiarize himself in case he ever risked losing it again. “I do, you know? I love you so much. I think I always have, I just had to grow as a person a little bit before I could accept it.”

“How can you just blurt it out like that?” Keith muttered grumpily, sinking his head down until his shoulders were up near his ears. Lance laughed, warm and bright, feeling so happy to have his partner back.

“Keith, do you have any idea how long I’ve spent _not_ being able to blurt it out? You’re never gonna be able to shut me up now.”

“I’m not _complaining_.” Keith admitted quietly, not meeting Lance’s gaze. Lance wouldn’t dream of looking away from Keith though, he stared openly and unabashedly. He was never going to take his eyes off of that boy again.

“No?” Lance prompted, sliding out of the bed. He held himself upright with one hand on the mattress, then held the other out to Keith. “Let’s go get something to eat, cariño.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! If I see ONE (1) comment about how Keith's self-sacrifice was justified and how I'm being dramatic... well, well, well..... i'll just have to keep writing the bullshit i wanna see into life. I want Keith's self-sacrifice addressed, I want Lance to be an appreciated and valued member of the team, and i WANT soem fuckng HURT/COMFORT for my stinky BOYS
> 
> melancholymango.tumblr.com  
> https://twitter.com/MelancholyMango
> 
> ps: i love keith


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